• There were government restrictions which mandated that a law

firm could not have more than 20 lawyers.

• The law firms could not advertise their services.
• There was a preference in corporations for in-house legal
advisors, as this mitigated the cost for hiring expensive legal
advisors from third party law firms.
• Liberalization of the Indian economy created a major boom in the
legal system as the need for it increased.
• There were very less practioners in the field with ample expertise.
• LPO sector was in the nascent stages, providing vast opportunities
in volume services, such as document review, legal publishing, and
high end services, such as, IPR, and contract services.
• Industry was favorable to the growth of the Indian legal market
because as per law, foreign nationals could not practice law in
India.
• Wide political support for keeping the legal market exclusive to
Indian nationals.
• Global spending on legal services was projected at $480 billion
by 2010, as compared to the 2005 projection of $390 billion.
• Due to excess demand, attrition rates for lawyers became a
major concern.
• A huge portion of this revenue was to go to growing economies
with highly qualified personnel who charged nominal fees.
• Market strategy was to grow from low level services, to niche
services, after adding required domain expertise.
• In October 1997, Singhania set up his office in New York.
• In November 1999, Singhania moved back to New Delhi to set
up his own corporate law and litigation practice under the name
of Singhania and Partners.
• Between 1999 and 2002 the firm moved to a bigger office in
the same building in New Delhi and set up offices in Bangalore,
Mumbai and Hyderabad.
• The firm grew from two lawyers in 1999 to 50 lawyers in
2006, eight of whom were partners.
• Turnaround time, accessibility to senior members in the firm,
meeting deadlines and providing services in a cost effective
manner were all important to clients and formed the core values
of the firm.
• The firm’s practice areas included tax, corporate and
commercial law, intellectual property, as well as arbitration and
litigation.
• Singhania and Partners increased business by getting work
through referrals.
• In order to institutionalize the systems put in place, the firm
sought an ISO 90025 certification in 1999 itself, which they go
tin 2000.
• The firm gained considerable experience in cross-border
transactions in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, joint
ventures, due diligence, technology transfer, as well as in
assisting its clients in establishing wholly owned subsidiaries in
India.
• It was a challenge for firms to create a legal practice which met
both the needs of clients for a high quality service and the
needs of lawyers for a sustainable work–life balance.
• Increase in competition and legal expertise requirements in
areas such as FDI , IPR , infrastructure financing, HR ,
environmental law, etc. due to entry of foreign investors.
• They were not sure whether to make legal process outsourcing
their core competence or not.
• They were concerned about attrition rate and adequacy of
their firm's people practices.
• They had to find ways of holding on to their employees and of
ensuring that they continued to be motivated.
• They provided better work environment than anybody else in
the industry.
• They thought of their people as their core asset and have
treated them accordingly and done everything to retain talent.
• They absolutely refused to do processes that required mundane
sort of work because it would not stimulate their lawyers.
• Apart from the regular work, in the bi-weekly open house they
have small presentations on different topics from different legal
areas where even their junior-most lawyers were encouraged to
present . It’s a great opportunity to learn, build confidence and
grow with the organization.
• With their open door policy, any body can walk in to any senior
management’s cabin for discussions.
• They encourage weekly senior management meeting or the bi-
weekly open house forums to be utilized for voicing opinions,
suggestions, ideas.
• The career growth is all merit based. A good example is how
their first litigation lawyer who started as an associate and is
now a partner.
• They don’t just rely on annual performance reviews for
increments; it is done on an as-and-when-needed basis.
• They try not to overwork their lawyers because they feel family
life is most important. For projects that require five lawyers,
they assign seven whereas others in the industry would like to
assign only three. They have also been able to provide a stress
free environment to work in.
It seems Singhania and Partners have covered all the bases by
providing better work-life balance, transparent grievance
redressal system, merit based career growth and as-and-when-
needed basis increments. But with all the talk about the entry of
foreign law firms into India the actions that they should take up
are as follows :
• Provide employee training in areas such as FDI , IPR ,
infrastructure financing, human rights, environmental law etc.
• They should try to make legal process outsourcing their core
competence as it was a booming industry.
• They should try to design more stimulating job profiles with
better pay structure for high performers to retain them.
• They should set up offices in abroad locations.